At the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to the printer of The Morning Star, a religious newspaper published in Dover, New Hampshire.

[1] He was severely wounded in his ankle in a skirmish at Ruff's Mill on July 4, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign and, as a result, had his left leg amputated.

Three months later, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker assigned Noyes, who was still recuperating and using crutches, to the command of Camp Dennison near Cincinnati, breveted him as a brigadier general.

He was elected to the governorship in 1871, besting another former Union Army officer, Col. George W. McCook, by more than twenty thousand votes.

He served one two-year term between 1872–74, pushing for stricter coal mine inspection laws and promoting fish conservation.